Leslie Harrison, Pittsburg, has always loved the water.
“In the summer, my family is always at the lake,” she said. “I wanted my three boys to be safe in the water. I had gotten an e-mail that showed a baby doing the survival swim float, and I thought ‘I want to do that.’”
Now she does. Harrison teaches survival swimming to infants and young children. “I say that I teach children from ages six months to six years,” she said. “Sometimes I do go a little over that age, depending on the size of the child.”
In preparation for this, Harrison had six weeks of training in Colorado with Judy Heumann, founder of Infant Aquatic Survival. “The program includes extensive in-water training, as well as academic coursework,” she said. “This was last September, so I’ve been doing this a full year now. I’m very excited to offer AquaKids to families in our community and provide them with a foundation of water safety and aquatic enjoyment.”
Harrison said survival swimming involves teaching children how to roll over and float.
“If the child is not walking yet, they usually can learn the survival back float, roll over and breathe,” she said. “Those who can walk, at around one year, can usually learn the full sequence, which is ‘swim, float, swim.’ They can swim with their face in the water, kicking with their feet, roll over to breathe, then get back over to swim to a wall or to a person.”
Harrison said that, toward the end of the sessions, she does lots of real-life scenarios to help prepare youngsters for aquatic situations.
The six-week lesson sessions are held Monday through Thursday at the Pittsburg Family YMCA. “I do 10-minute private lessons each day,” Harrison said. “Parents are invited and encouraged to be in the pool during the initial lessons. AquaKids lessons don’t require parents to be in the pool or practice the skills being taught, but we’ve found that in-water participation gives parents valuable experience and added comfort, and results in happier students who learn to swim in less time.”
She acknowledges that these lessons can’t make any child totally “drown-proof.”
“But the children are safer in the water, and they’ll have a significantly higher chance of surviving an aquatic accident,” Harrison said. “Also, it makes the parents so proud to see little kids swim. You don’t expect to see that.”
She noted that AquaKids does not teach swimming strokes. “But it’s really good at teaching the proper body position in preparation for swimming,” she said.
Anyone needing additional information may call Harrison at 620-704-2089, or visit aquakids@ymail.com or www.swimaquakids.com.
